THE JUSTICE LEAGUE (and The Star and Wonder) WEEKEND THREAD | PREMIUM ACCOUNT SALE NOW LIVE | Weekend Actuals ~ JL 93.84M, W 27.54M, T:R 21.66M, DH2 14.43M, MOTOE 13.80M, TS 9.81M

[straggler]

What I do not get is the release strategy. BvS was last year. Wonder Woman was just a few months ago. Why rush JL into theaters? Why not do the Flash and Aquaman films first, establish the characters, then release JL next year? And if those films were well received, it may have conditioned the critics to be more receptive while creating some favorable bandwagonism that greets the MCU films.  

[dudalb]

2 hours ago, Brainbug said:

This is the most entertaining weekend thread since Jurassic World for me.

I don't know; Fantastic Four (2015) had a lot of entertainment value...the thread here, not the movie.

[dudalb]

50 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

If this somehow manages to go as low as 80M, 200M is in jeopardy  

Not to mention the jobs of some high level people at Warners Brs....

[EmpireCity]

2 hours ago, Shawn said:

I haven't unfortunately. Hopefully @EmpireCity has. Could definitely see a big jump though with so little new competition over the holiday.

 

Lady Bird and Three Billboards are going wide-ish on the 22nd.  

[WrathOfHan]

Just now, EmpireCity said:

 

Lady Bird and Three Billboards are going wide-ish on the 22nd.  

So Lady Bird may not crack 1k theaters?  

 

Hopefully it expands by me relatively soon.

[Water Bottle]

1 minute ago, WrathOfHan said:

So Lady Bird may not crack 1k theaters?  

 

Hopefully it expands by me relatively soon.

 

You made it your avatar and you havent even seen it? 

 

That's almost as lame as ganging up on JL on this thread.

 

Almost.

[Webslinger]

3 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

So Lady Bird may not crack 1k theaters?  

 

Hopefully it expands by me relatively soon.

Could be worse: you could live in a town that has ever only shown one and only one A24 movie (Ex Machina).

[tonytr87]

9 minutes ago, straggler said:

What I do not get is the release strategy. BvS was last year. Wonder Woman was just a few months ago. Why rush JL into theaters? Why not do the Flash and Aquaman films first, establish the characters, then release JL next year? And if those films were well received, it may have conditioned the critics to be more receptive while creating some favorable bandwagonism that greets the MCU films.  

 

When the release schedule was announced I kept wondering this myself and telling everyone that would listen it was a mistake, but most people's response was "there's nothing wrong with DC trying to do things a little different from Marvel." 

 

It's not about whether they're doing it like Marvel. It's common fucking sense that if you want an audience to give a shit about these characters coming together you need to introduce them all separately beforehand. 

[filmnerdjamie]

It just amazes me how quickly many (not all, to be fair) have forgotten how Nolan had to build the Batman IP back up with Batman Begins. It was a struggle to convince people to check it leading up its June 2005 opening. The marketing didn't help either with confusion from many thinking it was a prequel to the Burton/Schumacher iterations (No joke). That took time to gel in. And then... it opened to a disappointing $73M 5-day. After getting it so right, there was genuine fear that this was it. No more Batman.

 

But then a funny thing happened... more and more people started going to see Begins. The next weekend and the weekend after that. It held like glue for the remainder of its run reaching $205M by sheer force thanks to its glowing reviews ans especially WOM. It became the film to take your friends too... and it always won them over. Followed by the phenomenal home video sales. Batman was back.

 

After The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were monster hits, WB got lazy and arrogant. Assumed throwing him in was the answer to any problem. Hence Batman v Superman. Look, I love Affleck (Gone Baby Gone and Argo were my favorite films of their respective years) and I was behind his casting from the start. But yeah he was miscast for what they were going for and the public just hasn't taken to him in the role. The fact is Bale is still the character in their hearts and minds.

 

And because the studio has had this reputation of panicking and making brass decisions, it wouldn't remotely surprise me if all development on The Batman stalls... and they put all their chips behind getting Nolan and Bale back. Not that they would say "Yes," (the opposite in fact) but it wouldn't stun me to look up and read that in Deadline.

[cannastop]

53 minutes ago, franfar said:

Could JL go under 150m?

I'm guessing no.

[EmpireCity]

8 minutes ago, straggler said:

What I do not get is the release strategy. BvS was last year. Wonder Woman was just a few months ago. Why rush JL into theaters? Why not do the Flash and Aquaman films first, establish the characters, then release JL next year? And if those films were well received, it may have conditioned the critics to be more receptive while creating some favorable bandwagonism that greets the MCU films.  

 

This was all orchestrated by the Snyder and his wife to maintain control of the DC Universe no matter how BvS did.  

 

If people don't remember, they set the production date right at the opening for BvS so there was no chance for Warner Bros. to back out or fire them if that failed.  It was a 1.99x legs disaster and they were stuck with them.  

 

Warner Bros. should have waited to see how BvS did and then made a decision on Snyder.  They could have fired him in April of 2015, got their shit together and hired a new team and started production later that year.   

[tonytr87]

2 minutes ago, Webslinger said:

Could be worse: you could live in a town that has ever only shown one and only one A24 movie (Ex Machina).

 

Sometimes I bitch about the fact that I live in DFW where most indies come here about 2-3 weeks after they debut on the coasts. Then I realize it could be much worse when I read stuff like this. 

[Eric is Quiet]

8 minutes ago, EmpireCity said:

 

Lady Bird and Three Billboards are going wide-ish on the 22nd.  

Man Who Invented Christmas?

[Webslinger]

Warner Bros rushed both Batman v. Superman and Justice League into theatres because they wanted an Avengers-sized cash cow right away. Back when they made the announcement that the Superman sequel would feature Batman in 2013, it also felt like they were desperate to ensure that their Superman sequel wouldn't drop after the divided reaction Man of Steel had.

 

I also get the impression that because they're dealing with such huge marquee names - whereas Marvel dealt with superheroes whom the general public either hadn't heard of, thought were lame, or didn't know nearly as well as the bigger names in the Marvel or DC universes - they wouldn't have to bother with setup films before getting to the main event. The cruel irony is that their "main event" films thus far have just felt like 2-2.5 hours of setup for something even larger.

[EmpireCity]

Just now, CoolEric258 said:

Man Who Invented Christmas?

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with who cares and it doesn't matter on this one.  Not very wide from what I am seeing.  

[Water Bottle]

2 minutes ago, EmpireCity said:

 

This was all orchestrated by the Snyder and his wife to maintain control of the DC Universe no matter how BvS did.  

 

If people don't remember, they set the production date right at the opening for BvS so there was no chance for Warner Bros. to back out or fire them if that failed.  It was a 1.99x legs disaster and they were stuck with them.  

 

Warner Bros. should have waited to see how BvS did and then made a decision on Snyder.  They could have fired him in April of 2015, got their shit together and hired a new team and started production later that year.   

 

Snyder and co. Didn't pick the production date for JL. WB did. This was all on WB.

[Orestes]

3 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

And because the studio has had this reputation of panicking and making brass decisions, it wouldn't remotely surprise me if all development on The Batman stalls... and they put all their chips behind getting Nolan and Bale back. Not that they would say "Yes," (the opposite in fact) but it wouldn't stun me to look up and read that in Deadline.

It would be more shocking if they didn't try to get them back. I hope they don't succeed.

[tonytr87]

4 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

It just amazes me how quickly many (not all, to be fair) have forgotten how Nolan had to build the Batman IP back up with Batman Begins. It was a struggle to convince people to check it leading up its June 2005 opening. The marketing didn't help either with confusion from many thinking it was a prequel to the Burton/Schumacher iterations (No joke). That took time to gel in. And then... it opened to a disappointing $73M 5-day. After getting it so right, there was genuine fear that this was it. No more Batman.

 

But then a funny thing happened... more and more people started going to see Begins. The next weekend and the weekend after that. It held like glue for the remainder of its run reaching $205M by sheer force thanks to its glowing reviews ans especially WOM. It became the film to take your friends too... and it always won them over. Followed by the phenomenal home video sales. Batman was back.

 

After The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were monster hits, WB got lazy and arrogant. Assumed throwing him in was the answer to any problem. Hence Batman v Superman. Look, I love Affleck (Gone Baby Gone and Argo were my favorite films of their respective years) and I was behind his casting from the start. But yeah he was miscast for what they were going for and the public just hasn't taken to him in the role. The fact is Bale is still the character in their hearts and minds.

 

And because the studio has had this reputation of panicking and making brass decisions, it wouldn't remotely surprise me if all development on The Batman stalls... and they put all their chips behind getting Nolan and Bale back. Not that they would say "Yes," (the opposite in fact) but it wouldn't stun me to look up and read that in Deadline.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Get Bale back and do a Batman Beyond set in Nolan's verse. Remember the Joker gang? Show the cult status of Ledger's Joker all these years later in Gotham. 

[MrFanaticGuy34]

The shocking thing is....if we can compare blockbusters in general....Justice League’s $38M OD is lower than say.....Finding Dory’s $54M OD. Granted that was last year in summer...and it’s a Pixar film....but it  is interesting to compare Justice League with any big movie we can find. Finding Dory though had way better reception and WOM, that helped that movie jump to $486M.

Edited November 18, 2017 by MrFanaticGuy34

[Noctis]

I'd say that JL opening just $9m higher than FB's OD says more than enough.